Craig Calfee is a pioneer in building bicycles with new materials. Starting with carbon fiber in 1987, Calfee was soon building bikes for Greg LeMond, Dave Scott, and many others. Branching out to tandems, track, cyclocross and recumbents, Calfee went on to make just about every kind of bike with carbobn fiber. Bamboo is the latest material, which he says offers an amazing ride quality, unmatched aesthetic, and makes a truly green statement. Since 2008, Calfee has been involved with bringing his bamboo joining techniques to developing countries so they can build their own bicycles from local bamboo. To this end, he founded Bamboosero bicycles.
www.calfeedesign.comwww.bamboosero.com

Bicycles: from an early childhood escape to a way of life. The bare structure of his Shcwinn Parmamount, stripped of paint, gave Nick Crumpton an insight to the hand-crafted world and he envisioned one day becoming a builder himself.
Many years later, Nick began learning the tools of the steel fabrication trade under the forgiving eyes of Hans Schultz, at GreenGear in Eugene, Oregon. In 2001, Crumpton began extensive research in advanced composites and by 2003 was riding full carbon prototypes. Today, he is still in pursuit of excellence as he offers his best in ft, performance and quality in his unique handcrafted bicycles.www.crumptoncycles.com

A visit by the 7-Eleven team to his home town in 1985 inspired 12 year-old Mike DeSalvo to get a job at the local bike shop. That was the beginning of his career. He took frame building classes at the United Bicycle Institute (UBI) in 1991, and graduated from there to become a bike/ski bum in Colorado. During the late ‘90s he returned to the UBI as a teacher, and in 1999 DeSalvo began to practice what he preached in building his first frame. In 2001 a serious hobby became a fulltime job, and DeSalvo now builds about 120 frames a year. Known as one of ‘the next wave’ of builders, DeSalvo has made frames for some of ‘the next wave’ of cycling champions, including Barry Wicks and Carl Decker.www.desalvocycles.com

RICHARD SACHS

Turning from a career in creative writing, at 18 years old Richard Sachs chose Southeast London over Goddard College and pursued the only other thing that had ever turned his head – bicycles. A racing enthusiast, his dream was one day to be on that long list of those who made the champions’ bicycles. Two years after his return from London, in 1976 he opened Richard Sachs Cycles. Today Sachs works alone just as he did on that very first day. His ties with the sport and its machinery are stronger than ever, and he approaches each order as a way of redeeming himself for all of the gaffes, and miscues, and mistakes made over the decades, and he continues to try and make that one elusive, perfect bicycle frame.www.richardsachs.com

Don Walker’s passion for cycling started when he took up racing on the road at age 14, and a year later on the track at Hellyer Park Velodrome in San Jose, California. Years later, now an aircraft mechanic, inspiration struck Walker when he was having a frame repaired. using his skill set as an aircraft mechanic and his knowledge of racing at Cat 2 level, Don set out to make precise, refined bicycles designed to withstand the rigors of road and track racing. Walker’s passion has helped riders of all levels to realize their potential and their dreams. Over the years, Walker’s frames have won district, state, national and international competitions, including a silver medal in the 1994 Commonwealth Games by Shaun Wallace of Great Britain. In 2005 Don founded the North American Handmade Bicycle Show and has remained its director since.www.donwalkercycles.com

NAHBS Awards
2005: Best Tandem Frame

SACHA WHITE

The Vanilla workshop is a community—a collaboration between master fabricators; expert painters; photographers; wood, leather, fabric and metal workers—working closely to bring the sexy, intelligent edge of Portland, Oregon, to the rest of the world. At the head of the workshop is owner, designer and its only framebuilder, Sacha White. White started building bicycles in the winter of 1999. Now, at just 32 years of age, he is a leader among the new generation of framebuilders. in bringing his own experiences as a cyclist and craftsman to the mix, he has created not only a bike but an entire company that reflects the values of hard work, style and unfettered vision.www.vanillabicycles.comwww.speedvagen.com